- Stylist:
- Elva
Aug 01, 2012 - It's been quite a while since I've gone to this salon, and I am aware that Elva is no longer working there, but I wanted to know if anyone else had an experience similar to mine. When I went for my consultation Elva seemed to really know what she was talking about, being a curly herself, and having read reviews of her work on this website, I was all too ready to proclaim her my hair savior. But after cutting my hair she started "twirling" it, which entailed slathering immense amounts of product onto a piece of hair until it was glued together and spinning it around her finger. While the process created neat, defined curls, there was so much product in my hair that it felt rock-solid and quite heavy, took FOREVER to dry, and positively reeked of that Aveeda stuff they were pimpin out. I ended up feeling like a stinky, crusty, wet mop. I didn't even really like the way it looked (my hair was sticking really close to my head because of all the gel and I prefer a bit more volume) but I figured it was because it was so different from what I was used to, and everyone kept telling me how great I looked. So I bought all their products and went on to repeat the process after every shower, which took about an hour and a half each night. It was just too much work for me and not enough payoff, which was why when I returned to her for a trim, I asked if there was any way she could style my hair without doing "the twirly thing". She seemed offended and told me that unless I did it her way, my hair couldn't get much better than "this" fluffing the huge, poofy, un-twirled mass on my head. I was heart-broken, thinking myself doomed to repeat the hellish Aveeda twirl for the rest of my life, lest I wish to suffer from clown hair. But I have since learned that she was wrong, and that all my hair needed to retain a smaller shape was a bit of layering. I don't know if I misunderstood her all those years ago or if she really, truly believed my hair couldn't look good without being drowned in product, but I feel like if she's as knowledgable as she claims to be, she could've just layered my hair and saved me a lot of trouble.